Author Topic: A lump or a tick?? (Read 6743 times)

Aeeeek · « **on:** February 01, 2006, 10:28:20 »

When brushing my dog yesterday I found a grey wrinkly lump on his back about size of pea, this morning it seems bigger and not wrinky anymore and kind of shiny...... before I rush him off to vets could this be a tick ( or is it tic?) we do walk him in fields/long grass , anyway I can tell ? and do they eventually fall off or do they have to be removed???

any advice gratefully received !

kenkew · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2006, 10:49:38 »

It's a tic and will eventually fall off. Ideally you should remove and kill it as you have no idea where it's going to end up. Maybe in your bed? Tics will also suck human blood.
My dog goes all over the place with me and inevetably she picks up the odd one. I have a little plastic gadget I got from the vet which works better than anything I have ever tried. Aslo from pet shops I'm sure. It's yellow and sort of L shaped with two 'prongs' at the base. You slide it under the tic and twist then pull, that makes sure you get the whole thing. If you leave any part in the dog it will fester. Best thing is to place it on a tissue and see if it moves, if it does than you have the whole thing. Then you squash it to make sure there isn't a chance of it returning....or breeding!
There is also a liquid from the vets that you put on the dog's back (so the dog can't lick it). It's a good preventative for tics and fleas.

eileen · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2006, 11:08:02 »

Ah I see Ken has already beaten me to it!!!! Exactly what i was going to say myself. :D

Jesse · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2006, 14:04:53 »

if it's a tic it will have legs, the grey ones can have teeny little legs so look carefully :)

kenkew · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2006, 14:14:38 »

Just don't get too close in case it jumps into your eye and sucks all the blood out of it and your eye falls on the floor and you stand on it and then you've only got one eye to see you through the week and then you've got to queeze all the juices out of the tic and back into your eye and then you have a problem getting a full eye back into the socket and you still have to poke your eye with the yellow gadget to get the tic out and chances are if it's a big tic with big spikey legs it'll hang on real tight and you'll pull your eye out all over again and have to go to the vets to have the tic removed before it has a chance of sucking your eye dry again.
Your best bet is; sell the dog.

Paulines7 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 01, 2006, 15:34:06 »

What a load of eyewash Ken, and not a word of truth in it. LOL ::)
Sell the dog.......whatever next and what a bloodcurdling story.

Ticks cannot jump. Cast an eye over this from a Q&A website:
Do ticks jump?
No. People often think that because a tick often attaches in the head, that the tick has jumped out of the trees. As ticks are susceptible to desiccation, they tend not to climb very high in the vegetation. Once on a host, the tick may take several hours before finding a site to attach to, which is often on the head. Ticks do not have legs that are adapted for jumping.

When my dog has a tick, I get some flea spray or some spirit such as vodka, gin whisky etc and really soak the tick with it. ;) I wait three minutes, pull the tick out with tweezers and then squash it in the handbasin and flush it away.

kenkew · « **Reply #6 on:** February 01, 2006, 18:42:05 »

Ah! Pauline, that's not true. You never eyeballed a tic? It depends on the season....don't you know that there song....'Timing, a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-timing'...? If the timings right you'll get lots of tica's ...'tickin' all over the place'....yeah! Yeah! Yeah.....yeaaaah!

Paulines7 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 01, 2006, 19:09:42 »

I wonder what happened to Jimmy Jones the two hit wonder man with Good Timing and Handyman. 8) oops, I've put Roy Orbison here!!

Getting back to the subject matter, I am surprised that the ticks are about at this time of year. We get quite a few here but not normally until April and the weather has not exactly been mild.

joji · « **Reply #8 on:** February 01, 2006, 19:14:01 »

Aeeek

I would say that is is a tick. I would also say the best form of action is to take the dog to the vets to get it removed. Ticks can carry an illness called Lyme disease. This illness can kill your dog. Please take your dog to the vet. If you try and get it out and leave the head in the dog it will cause all sorts of problems.

Kenkew

Just behave ;D. TICKS DON'T AND NEVER HAVE JUMPED. It is fleas that jump.

kenkew · « **Reply #9 on:** February 01, 2006, 19:19:33 »

Got a tic of my dog just a few days ago....suprised me too at this time of year.

kenkew · « **Reply #10 on:** February 01, 2006, 19:30:27 »

Please, please tell me I don't need to explain the difference between humour and serious......anyone taking my 'jumping' post as anything other than humour really wants to read it again, come-on!! Really?

PS: My first posting dealt with the matter in detail. As a therapist who also treats animals I'm a firm believer in giving correct advice as I see it followed with a little humour to lessen stress...(to the owner, not the animal!)...and if you take it to the vet it will cost you money for something you could quite easily do yourself. Regarding Lyme arthitis, it's a disease transmitted by deer tics first dicovered in the town of Lyme, connecticut and if you or an animal is bitten by an infected tic you have a small chance of contracting the disease. Going to the vet will not prevent this happening once you're bitten. Treatment is not usually succesful and can result in many years of pain and possible wheelchair for life use and eventual death. Is that serious enough?
Having said that, life has to be lived with or without the down side, eh?...'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life'....now, who sang that?

Paulines7 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 01, 2006, 19:58:57 »

Quote from: joji on February 01, 2006, 19:14:01

Aeeek

I would say that is is a tick. I would also say the best form of action is to take the dog to the vets to get it removed. Ticks can carry an illness called Lyme disease. This illness can kill your dog. Please take your dog to the vet. If you try and get it out and leave the head in the dog it will cause all sorts of problems.

Joji, if I took Meggie to the vets everytime she had a tick, I would be bankrupt by now. Even though she has Frontline flea and tick treatment, she still manages to get ticks practically every day during the summer. Whilst I agree that Aeeeek should consult the vet for some protection for her dog, especially during the summer, I really think it is a bit OTT getting the vet to remove the tick.

Carol · « **Reply #12 on:** February 01, 2006, 20:25:03 »

Many years ago when I lived in Singapore we had a dog. Our dog picked up ticks every day and every night she had to have the 'ticks' removed. I kept tweezers next to a creamy solution and carefully removed each tick. So I would ahve been at the vets daily. Now and then a tick would release itself from the dog and crawl up our wall. That usually happened when we had visitors. Typical eh.

Heldi · « **Reply #13 on:** February 01, 2006, 21:09:31 »

When I lived in Germany my house backed on to a forest.

My dog Cassie was forever getting ticks and always in the same two places. On her bum,I mean THEE bum not the bit around it and on her foof. My ex husband got the job of removing the ticks. Trying to get one off a dog's foof is bad enough,they don't co- operate for some reason, but when it is on the bum...you get a grip of the tick with some tweezers and the bum sucks it up!! So,because ticks were a common problem, we had been given lots of tips on how to remove them. When ticks have their head stuck in the skin they are breathing through a hole in their behind...so we were informed. One method is to cover the tick with a thick amount of petroleum jelly. The tick can't breathe and it drops off. Well this tick on Cassie's butt would not budge. Cassie kept tightening her sphinctor everytime we approached the tick with tweezers and it disappeared. It was decided that the petroleum jelly would have to be applied.

Picture this. You are my neighbour and you have just strolled out into your garden to enjoy the evening sunshine. You turn smiling,full of the joys when you are confronted with the spectacle of my (ex) OH with the dog held tightly between his knees. He is holding her tail up high in the air with one hand whilst whilst the index finger of the other hand,loaded with copious amounts of vaseline is heading straight for the dog's anus. :o :o What would you think?!

Carol · « **Reply #14 on:** February 01, 2006, 22:35:05 »

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Thats a cracker Heldi. :D :D :D

teresa · « **Reply #15 on:** February 01, 2006, 23:09:42 »

Oh Heldi that must have been a site hee hee,
But the treatment is vaseline and cover the tick to suffercate it so it cannot breath and it will drop off where well keep the poor dog confined for a couple of days.
The old story of if you pull it out it will leave the head behind and go septic not nice for the animal.
I always have some hydrogen peroxide solution 3%
great for any cuts or wounds on animals and humanes as well. The vets use this dead cheap from any chemist.

kenkew · « **Reply #16 on:** February 02, 2006, 13:29:08 »

Quote from: Carol on February 01, 2006, 20:25:03

Many years ago when I lived in Singapore we had a dog. Our dog picked up ticks every day and every night she had to have the 'ticks' removed. I kept tweezers next to a creamy solution and carefully removed each tick. So I would ahve been at the vets daily. Now and then a tick would release itself from the dog and crawl up our wall. That usually happened when we had visitors. Typical eh.

Snap! Me too in S'ingers with my dog.
Chip Bee? Serangoon?

joji · « **Reply #17 on:** February 02, 2006, 21:30:16 »

If you have never removed a tick before. It is best to go to the vet for them to teach you how to remove one properly. That is all I was saying.

kenkew · « **Reply #18 on:** February 03, 2006, 08:22:36 »

That certainly makes sense, jojo or get an 'expert' to show how. It's not at all difficult but if done wrong it can leave part of the tic embedded and then there's a possible infection problem. Most dog owners have dealt with this problem and know what to do. Ask around if you need to be shown how.

joji · « **Reply #19 on:** February 03, 2006, 11:30:39 »

KenKew. The name is JOJI Not Jojo. :)

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Author Topic: A lump or a tick?? (Read 6743 times)